A short in-pictures review of the new wedding book I just received from GraphiStudio in Italy. What can I say about the book – the prints are georgous, the craftmanship is top notch, and the Napa leather cover with cutout insert looks very luxurious and high-end. The debossed lettering added a nice elegant and modern touch to the book. At a size of 16×12 inches, the 50 pages, 25 spreads, handmade-gapless-flushmount book can be a bit heavy, but the weight has a high-quality feel when holding it in your hands. I chose the Metallic prints which are very eye catching. The extra shine and high contrast of Metallic paper may not be for everyone but when you see one, you will want it. It looks THAT good!

Last Holloween, I stopped by Lucky’s and got 2 dozens cupcakes for my daughter’s first grade’s little party. They were chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream icing and rainbow sprinkles, alot of rainbow sprinkles – because that was a special request from Sydney. Her actual words were, “Daddy, can you get chocolate cupcake with alot of rainbow sprinkles because they are good and I like them alot and my friends like them alot too”. Nothing special about these cupcakes and they also tasted just like any normal cupcakes on any other days.

So, what does this have to with Jenny and Victor’s esession?

Not much, really, it just felt like a cool story to tell. Well, except that Jenny and Victor had their wedding cake ordered from Icing On The Cake bakery in Los Gatos and Icing On The Cake has like half a million different flavors of cupcakes with alot of different colors of sprinkles. They are all out of this world delicous and finger licking good, especially the banana cream flavor cupcake, which was the same flavor that Jenny and Victor chose for the wedding. That’s all!

Congratulations to Jenny and Victor. Wishing you the very best!

Since the rain god decided to skip Northern California for the last couple of months and hence dumped nothing, zero, zip, nada flake of snow in the high Sierra and seriously putting the ski season at risk, I thought I should find something better to update the blog with .

I shot this session of Tamara a while ago on a cold windy day at Santa Cruz. Tamara is an inspiring model who loves all kind of animals especially her dogs.

This picture was taken during a wedding. This old woman was not part of the wedding party; she was just a church goer. While the ceremony was happening, she gently walked in and quietly sat down a few rows away from the wall and just listened. I turned around and snapped one frame. I just liked it the way it was.

Back in August, I had a chance to second shoot My-Chan and Khai’s wedding for Kevin Nguyen at the beautiful Bonfante Gardens in Gilroy.

This was the first time I shoot a wedding banquet at an outdoor theme park. What a refreshing change. Everything was just bigger and brighter and way funner eventhough the temperature was soaring in the low 90′s. The schedule was tight due to the time constrain of the theme park pre-arrangements but nonetheless it was a great day to spend with a great couple.

I went to Gilroy Bonfante Gardens and all I came back with were these pictures.

On every New Year, Vietnamese people always greet and wish each other luck, good health and “money pours in like water”.

Well, there’s April’s rain, May’s flowers and June…well June is the gateway to summer, the freedom to roam the open fields, the exhilarating feeling of walking barefeet in the sand, caressing by the gentle splashes of the rushing waves. But not rain! June is definitely not for rain. But it turned out to be a great day. A very happy and festive day. A sign of a great beginning when two lives are starting new.

Nhu-Quynh and Thong, I wish you the very best with money pouring down like rain drops.

Shooting second for Kevin Nguyen at Lighttouchstudio.com

I’m a big fan of Zenfolio when they just started out a few years ago and love each and every improvement they made to the site. Remember, I’m not just a fan, I’m also a customer.

Zenfolicous!!!!

Hien wanted to do a beach shoot, so westward we drive toward Monterey Bay. On the way there, we were ecstatic that the sun was bright, the weather was nice and warm, but as soon as we hit the destination, the marine layer rolled in and sunny no more! We managed to have some fun and got a few shots in…and well…see below.

Congratulations to Hien and Tam. You guys were great and I can’t wait to see a little gal crawling around shortly.

Btw, Hien is one of the best flowerist and paper artist in town. If you need flower settings and invitations for your big day, her info can be found at www.flowerandpaper.com

I had a chance to photograph Miranthe Mitome last month in traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai. Mitome was miss congeniality of the 2010 Vietnamese Northern California Pageant.

I had an opportunity as a second shooter to photograph a great couple at Valencia Hotel in Santana Row. The setting was great, the atmosphere was great, the feeling was great. It was just a great day to tie the knot.